


The Value of a Moment

by alexcyprin (Megatraven)



Series: Silver and Gold [9]
Category: Labyrinths of Astoria (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Crying, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23780419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megatraven/pseuds/alexcyprin
Summary: After MC went missing during a case, Alex went to every length trying to find her. Years passed and they never gave up, but what they never expected was that she would find her own way back to them.
Relationships: Alex Cyprin/Main Character
Series: Silver and Gold [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572766
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	The Value of a Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this idea by both me and @seduceme-lovestruck-thearcana on tumblr: https://megatraven.tumblr.com/post/616035940751785984/seduceme-lovestruck-thearcana-megatraven

Exhaustion had long since found home in Alex’s bones, but it was never more apparent than when they shut the door to MC’s apartment behind them. They pulled their best smile to their face, though after the past couple of years, it was more a grimace than smile. Still- they pulled out their best.

“I’m home,” they called out, and felt the words tug at their heart. Nothing answered back, but they never expected anything to.

With a heavy sigh, Alex unbuttoned their jacket and slid it off, their fingers mindlessly running over the buttons on their sleeves as they remember her, smiling and full of warmth and mischievousness when she would roll them up for them.

Their grimace turned more into a smile at the memory, and if they closed their eyes, they could pretend to feel her touch across time itself. But they rarely let themself linger on such a feeling- it always hurt too much when the reality came crashing back down on them.

They were alone. She was gone, and no matter what they did, no matter what effort they put into it, they couldn’t figure out what had happened to her.

Shaking their head, they pulled their vest off, too, and then their shirt so that only their binder covered their chest. It didn’t take long to fold their clothes up, and before they knew it, they were in their hoodie and ready to sleep.

It’d taken them a long time to adhere back to some semblance of a normal sleeping schedule, but... they knew it’s what she would want for them. And they knew there was nothing their nightmares could show them that were any worse than the ones they lived through every day.

They slid into bed, grabbing one of MC’s old pillows to hug to their chest. They buried their nose in it and inhaled deeply- it had been years, but it still smelled just like her. The faint scent of vanilla, a hint of lemons- which always made Alex feel warm- and the smell of her shampoo. 

With a free hand, they grabbed their phone from their pocket, and quickly dialed a number they knew by heart. It rang and it rang, as it always did, before the voicemail picked up.

“You’ve reached MC,” their own voice in the message laughed out.

“-and Alex!” MC said, a giggle in her own voice. “We’re not in right now, but leave your number and- Alex, stop!- and we’ll call you back when we get the chance!”

“Bye!” Their voice and MC’s own rang out on the last word, and it filled Alex’s chest with the weight of grief. 

“I miss you,” they whispered, and squeezed their eyes shut, the sharp sting of tears burning their eyes. They pressed the button to hang up, and felt like they left part of their soul behind in doing so, just like every other time they called the number.

A sob rose from their chest, their tears soaking into the pillow’s cover. They thought they might have cried themself empty by now, but part of them knew they could never shed enough tears for her. Instead of trying to stop it, they let their sorrow flow, and eventually it lulled them into the halfway point between being awake and asleep.

Almost drifting off, they didn’t register the sound right away- keys, sliding into the front door’s lock, wiggling until the lock was off, and then- the turn of the knob, and creak of the door opening. The lights flipped on.

After a short moment, Alex shot upright, running a hand through their hair, heart pounding. Silver energy traced up their arms, coiling and readying to defend them at a moment’s notice. They slid carefully from the bed and quietly made their way to the curtain that blocked the room from the rest of the apartment.

Taking a steadying breath, they tore the curtains aside and stepped out, a dark sort of anger in their eyes that anyone would dare try entering _her_ apartment without permission. They prepared to throw the person back out, or seriously chew into them, but any words, any actions they would have made died on their tongue, their anger draining away.

Warm brown eyes stared back at them, as exhausted as they were, for sure, but still full of life and love. Her hair was longer than it had been, slightly unkempt, but there was no mistaking it as hers. 

Alex tried to say something, anything, but all their words caught in their throat. They swallowed, searching her eyes, her face, her everything, committing her to their memory once again, reconciling how she looked before she’d gone missing with how she looked now. Their knees grew weak the longer they stared, but for all the strength in their body, for all the emotions storming through them, they couldn’t bring themself to move, afraid of shattering the vision before them.

And then, she spoke. One simple word, what they thought they’d never hear again, but so desperately _needed_ to feel whole.

“Alex.”

All their fears crumbled, and it was all they could do to not tackle her to the ground as they rushed forward all at once, with everything they had in them.

“MC,” they choked out, voice raw with emotion. It’s all they could say, over and over again as they held onto her, relaxed into her touch as she returned their embrace.

“Alex, Alex,” she murmured, rubbing soothing circles against their back, and it almost made them laugh- shouldn’t they be the one comforting her? She pulled back from them just enough that they could see her face, even as they ached where she left them.

She brought her hands up and cupped their cheeks. And then she smiled, and it was as if every terrible and awful thing that weighed Alex down since she’d gone missing slid from their shoulders, and they could finally breathe again.

“I missed you.” Tears started to pour down her face. “I missed you.”

They held onto her tighter, and let their lips press oh, so gently against the corner of hers.

“I missed you, too. Everyday. Every minute.” They closed their eyes and shook their head. “I always waited for you. I never stopped. I never lost hope that you were still out there.” They took a shuddering breath, and it was only her touch- a little rough with need- that kept them from breaking down entirely in her arms. “And you did. You came back.”

“I did,” she agreed. “I came back.” She moved her hands back behind them, pulling them into a hug once more. They took the opportunity to bury their nose in the crook of her neck and breathed in. The pillow had been no match for _her_ , no replacement. They clung to her as tight as they could, afraid to let go.

Somehow, they wound up on the couch- maybe their combined exhaustion was enough to move them without them really noticing, but at some point they became a tangle of legs and limbs.

“MC,” Alex breathed out, running their fingers through her hair. There was a lightness in their chest that had been gone for so long, they weren’t quite sure what to make of it anymore. But beyond that laid a deep sort of anguish, and the longer they waited to breach the topic, the harder it was to ignore, until they were suffocating all over again.

MC answered with a sort of hum, her eyes closed and her hands tracing meaningless designs into their skin.

They hated to pull her from the calm she was feeling, hated to ruin their moment with something so hard, but they had to know. They _had_ to ask her, before anything else. Even if she couldn’t answer them.

“Where... where were you? What happened to you?” they asked, voice rough.

MC tensed beneath their touch, but rather than pull away, she hugged herself closer to them. She opened her eyes, and despite her smile, Alex could see the tightness in her expression.

“I was...close.” Her eyebrows drew together and she dropped her gaze, her fingers clenching the fabric of Alex’s hoodie tightly. “Um. Can we- can this wait for the morning?” She looked up again, meeting their gaze, and their heart aches at what they see in hers. “I don’t think either of us are ready to face that just yet.”

Alex, though a little disappointed, was more relieved than anything. She was right- they weren’t really ready to hear. They could pull themself together by morning, surely, but in the moment, all they wanted was to know MC was safe there, with them, and take comfort in that.

“Of course it can wait.” They shook their head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, don’t apologize,” she interrupted. “I want to tell you- I need to tell you. I just.” She went quiet, looking for the right words, and Alex waited for her to find them with all the patience in the world. “I just need to take up tomorrow, and see that I’m still... here.”

That pushed Alex to tears again, and they held her close, pressing her head to their chest in a way that let her hear their heartbeat. (They might have thought that if she strained her ears enough, she would hear their heart breaking for her.)

“I understand.”

And they did. Their new worst fear was that the morning would come, and she’d be gone again. They would wake up and find her return was nothing more than a fantasy. It took everything in them to shake that fear off, to let hope blossom in its place, but they managed to do it anyways, if only because she was _there._

“I’ll be here in the morning. You’ll be here. We’ll figure all of this out, and we’ll call Josh and May, and maybe even Eryn. We-” their voice broke- “we’ll still be here.”

It was a promise, of sorts. There was no way they could really and truly guarantee it, if it _was_ all a dream. But their faith in her, and their confidence, and their _conviction_ that all would be well was enough of a solid ground for both to stand on. 

Though it took them both a long time to fall asleep, enough so that the sun was rising when it finally happened, sleep they finally did. And when their morning came, in the evening of all times...

They were both still there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and Kudos appreciated!
> 
> If you'd like to request something, or just talk about lovestruck in general, you can send an ask to my sideblog @official-alex-cyprin on tumblr! Any requests I receive for characters I haven't met/played through yet will be saved in my inbox until I have met/played them!


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